Don't Talk Or You'll Ruin It!

Can you even imagine how wonderful it would be to meet a man that looks just like the character described in your favorite book (if you're both single and ready to mingle)?  We all get an image in our minds when reading a good book. We just automatically give life to these written characters.  Books wouldn't suck us in so easily if we couldn't picture these fictitious people for ourselves.  This is also why it's sad sometimes when your book is coming to an end.

 My version of book characters don't necessarily look exactly as they're described in the books.  But still, I get very attached to these mental pictures.  This can be a real problem when my books get made into movies.  I am currently terrified of discovering who will play Christian Grey in the adaptation on Fifty Shades of Grey.  My idea of him is probably VERY different than what Hollywood will choose.  I picture Christian Bale ( not just because of the name), because I think he's super hot and I could see him having a bit of a mean streak.  My sister liked that idea, but she thought we should mix him with Adam Levine.   That addition might make him a bit younger, like he's described in the book.  This sounds like a delicious man cocktail to me!  Oh what I wouldn't give to see this hybrid man in real life!  But seriously, if a thirty year old Christian Bale were available to play that   role, it would be AMAZING!

My book men aren't always famous guys.  Most of the time I picture hybrid guys that are part celebrity, part imagined man.  Every now and again I'll picture the lead man character and I won't have any idea where I'm drawing my inspiration from.  This happened with my mental Edward (I cringe if you are reading this and you don't know who EDWARD is.  The movies didn't do him justice, but it's the vampire from the Twilight series.  Yes, I read and loved the books).  My Edward didn't have coppery hair, as that's not my thing.  My Edward wasn't freezing cold or pale white, and he certainly wasn't Robert Pattinson.  I understand that he's a vampire, but I prefer my fellas with a little color.  I certainly didn't picture a  Pauly D  vampire, but not pure white either.   I would later find True Bloods, Eric, to be my exact taste in Vampire men.  But when I read Twilight, I had no preconceived notions about what my vampires should be like. Twilight was my very first vampire book.

So I've got my vampire Edward in my mind and one day it dawns on me that my Edward is not made up at all, he is based on a man I've seen in real life.  I can't for the life of me understand why this happened.  My Edward was a regular guy that I had seen only a few times at the salon I worked at.  I figured it out one night as I was getting ready to leave the salon.  To my total surprise I look over and notice "my Edward" is getting his hair cut by my friend.  His name is NOT Edward, and I will never reveal his true identity.   He's actually now married to my friends sister, he was probably engaged to her already when this happened.  I was mortified when I put all the pieces together in my head.   The next day at work, I confessed all this to my friend and she had no choice but to pass this hilarious tidbit on to him.  I only saw my Edward a couple of times after that, but I felt like a creepy idiot when I saw him.  I avoided all eye contact. Plus I hoped his wife wouldn't feel like I was over stepping any boundaries, but it was not my fault that my mind chose this random guy and I hope she knows that the books were PG-13 at best.

  I hope he's forgotten all about this, but it's almost to weird to just forget it.  How do you just forget that some grown woman, whom you've probably never spoken to,  secretly pictures you as a romantic vampire in her PG-13 novels?  At least I can be certain he's never read the books......that helps calm my shame a bit.  What an awful trick my mind played on me.  Back to the celebrity drawing board.   At least they never have to know you're picturing them.  I used to have a reoccurring dream that my husband and I were hiding David Beckham in our basement much like Anne Frank.  He wasn't a prisoner or anything.  He was grateful that we were helping him stay hidden.  It was a wonderful dream, but I wouldn't want Victoria Beckham knowing that I dream that from time to time.  Again, not my fault!  The point being, that's it's just best if these characters aren't people we really know.